UMass Dartmouth places third in first Little East Conference men's lacrosse season

(Dartmouth, MA) -- The 2001 season marked UMass Dartmouth's third year as a varsity squad and the Corsairs first year in the newly formed Little East Conference men's lacrosse league.

When the LEC's first season was in the books, Coach Jeff Feroce's Corsairs finished third with a 4-2 record and an 8-5 overall mark. The first Little East Conference men's lacrosse All-Star team included a pair of Corsairs with the LEC's first Rookie of the Year hailing from UMass Dartmouth.

Freshman attack Jeff McKee (Ashland, MA) was honored by the LEC coaches as their first Rookie of the Year award winner. In his first season with the Corsairs, McKee scored 23 goals plus a team-high 31 assists for 55 points, second most on the squad. McKee appeared in 12 games for UMass Dartmouth and took 40 shots, averaging 4.6 points per game.

Named to the LEC Second Team All-Star squad were two members of UMass Dartmouth's men's lacrosse team. Junior attack and co-captain Jim Ruggeri (Waltham, MA) and junior defenseman and co-captain Rich Maggio (Winchester, MA) were honored by the LEC. Ruggeri was UMass Dartmouth's leading scorer with 42 goals and 26 assists for 68 points, an average of 5.7 points per game over 12 games. Maggio appeared in 11 games for UMass Dartmouth and led a defense which limited Corsair opponents to 9.7 goals per game.

Junior midfielder Jared Gray (Weymouth, MA) was honored by the Little East Conference following the LEC Men's Lacrosse Tournament. Gray was the only member of the Corsairs to be named to the LEC All-Tournament team. Gray had 2 goals and an assist in UMass Dartmouth's 12-10 LEC semi-final round loss to UMass Boston. The Corsairs had advanced to the LEC semi finals with a forfeit win over Southern Maine.

While Ruggeri and McKee received the post season awards, the Corsairs received several other outstanding efforts during the 2001 season. Senior attack and co-captain Michael Beaton (Pittsfield, MA) was the Corsairs' third offensive threat throughout the year, finishing with 43 points on 29 goals (2nd on team) and 14 assists (3rd on team). Rounding out the Corsairs' other top scorers were Gray (16-10-26), freshman midfielder Matt Brown (Milford, MA) (7-5-12), freshman attack John King (Ashland, MA) (11-0-11), freshman midfielder John Handrahan (Wareham, MA) (10-1-11), freshman attack Jeff Long (Marlboro, MA) (11-0-11) and junior midfielder Dan Salerno (Billerica, MA) (9-2-11).

Sophomore Jason Doyle (Waltham, MA) handled the bulk of the goaltending duties, appearing in 12 games and coming up with a 10.64 goals against average. Doyle averaged 8.75 saves per game and allowed a total of 105 goals in 592 minutes of action.